Born in Spoleto, Italy, in 1915, Leoncillo Leonardi, known as Leoncillo, was one of the most important Italian sculptors of the post-war period, celebrated for transforming clay into a vehicle for the expressive ambitions of modern art. He forged an entirely new and, as art historian and curator Enrico Crispolti described, ‘unprecedented’ kind of sculpture, grounded in the poetics of the body and the gesture, and animated by a visceral, dynamic sense of materiality. His singular oeuvre garnered critical acclaim both within Italy and internationally. Over the course of his career, he represented Italy in six editions of the Venice Biennale between 1948 and 1968.
Never allowing himself to be confined by a single style or movement, Leoncillo’s practice was defined above all by an unwavering devotion to clay and to the inner, felt experience of the human body. His early work was predominantly figurative, reflecting an affinity with the expressive styles of the Baroque and the Scuola Romana, a group with which he was associated during the 1930s. The Second World War, however, precipitated a decisive shift in his practice towards increasingly experimental modes of abstraction. He first engaged with the geometric vocabulary of post-Cubism before ultimately embracing the improvisational and highly gestural ethos of Arte Informale, which emerged as a dominant artistic tendency in Europe during the late 1940s and 1950s.
After studying in Rome, Leoncillo returned to Umbria in 1939. There, away from Italy’s major cities and their artistic circles, he developed an increasingly profound relationship with the natural world. Deeply engaged with the existential possibilities of matter, he approached clay not merely as a sculptural medium but as a living substance that bore the potential of both destruction and renewal. Animated by fissures, splits and grooves, Leoncillo’s sculptures evoke trees as readily as expanses of cracked earth, flesh, fossils, leaves and stones. Yet his aim was never to imitate the appearances of the natural world. To make art was to express being and, with it, the experiences of anguish, desire, beauty and suffering. His sculptures explore the body beyond its strictly human boundaries. As Alberto Salvadori, Director of Fondazione ICA Milano, observes, in Leoncillo’s work, ‘everything has a body. And the body is a concept, not just a form.’
During this period, he produced a series of innovative polychrome sculptures using coloured clays that he layered and modelled into organic, abstract forms, often working directly with his hands or using wire to make deep incisions into the surface. Colour – no longer simply applied to the sculpture’s exterior through glaze – also emerged from within the material itself, released through successive cuts and ruptures that evoked the wounds of Italy’s regenerating post-war society. ‘Cutting the clay with a wire is to enact a decisive gesture – cruel and liberating,’ Leoncillo stated. ‘The clay is like my own flesh, an absolute process of identification.’ His works conceive of sculpture as a process of continual becoming, rooted in the elemental forces of nature and the vital, transformative properties of clay.
Leoncillo’s gestural cuts invite parallels with his contemporaries, evoking both the patchwork compositions of his Informale peer Alberto Burri, assembled from stitched burlap sacks, and Lucio Fontana’s renowned Tagli (Cuts), the slashed canvases through which he crystallised his Spatialist theories. Though Leoncillo and Fontana shared a fertile intellectual dialogue – a room at the XXVII Venice Biennale in 1954 was dedicated to the two artists – they arrived at the cut from fundamentally distinct positions. While Fontana sought to dematerialise the painted gesture and open up a new, uncharted spatial dimension beyond the picture plane, Leoncillo considered material his primary means of expression and dove ever deeper into its substance in order to reveal its intrinsic life force. As Luca Massimo Barbero, Director of the Institute of Art History of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, writes, Leoncillo’s cuts represented ‘an entirely new form of art and sculpture, where the simplest and humblest of materials – the earth itself – is transformed and transfigured into a matter that gathers around itself the prodigies of space and the liturgy of silence.’
Leoncillo rejected the notion that ceramics was an anachronistic medium tied to a distant artisanal past. ‘I have never used it in an “ancient” way; I have never been archaic,’ he said. ‘I have always understood ceramics as a break with the traditional concept of sculpture.’ Embracing clay for its responsiveness to human touch and its capacity for immediate expression, Leoncillo envisaged his engagement with the medium as, in many respects, an affirmation of the present. As he explained: ‘Because with it a new organicity is possible. The organicity of what grows and is alive [...] Because ceramics, precisely, can give more than any other material those visible, almost tactile conditions through which a state of mind is expressed.’
Leoncillo’s first solo exhibition took place at the Galleria del Fiore, Florence (1949). Subsequent solo exhibitions were held at Galleria La Tartaruga, Rome (1957); Galleria Blu, Milan (1960); Galleria L’Attico, Rome (1962); Galleria Odyssia, Rome (1965; travelled to Galleria Odyssia, New York); and Modern Art Agency, Naples (1968). He participated in six editions of the Venice Biennale (1948, 1950, 1952, 1954, 1960 and 1968) as well as the VII Milan Triennale (1940); Antwerp Biennale (1953, 1959) and Rome Quadriennale (1955, 1959). In 1954 and 1964, he was awarded the Faenza Prize, a prestigious competition for contemporary ceramic art.
In 1950, Leoncillo’s sculpture was included in the major exhibition Italy at Work: Her Renaissance in Design Today, which debuted at the Brooklyn Museum, New York before touring to 11 other venues in the USA. His work was also included in group exhibitions at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (1948); Musée Rodin, Paris (1960, 1966); Louisiana Museum, Humlebaek (1961); Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh (1964); and Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (1964). In 1962, his work was included in Sculptures in the City – V Festival of Two Worlds, Spoleto, curated by Giovanni Carandente.
Since his death, Leoncillo’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at institutions including the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome (1979); Rocca Albornoziana, Spoleto (1985); Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Palazzo Forti, Verona (1985); Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche, Faenza (1995); Fonti del Clitunno, Campello sul Clitunno (2015); and Museo Novecento, Florence (2021). He was also included in group shows at institutions including the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (1986); Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (1990); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (1994); Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence (2012); Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche, Faenza (2014); Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome (2015, 2018); Palazzo Fortuny, Venice (2017); and Palazzo Strozzi, Florence (2018).
2023
Leoncillo – Sequences (1932–1968), Spazio all’Arte, Rome, Italy
Leoncillo. Return to Gubbio, Logge dei Tiratori, Gubbio, Italy
2022
Leoncillo. In the Sign of the Body, Palazzo Bracci Pagani, Fano, Italy
2021
Leoncillo. The Ancient, Museo Novecento, Florence, Italy
2019
Leoncillo. Earth Air IMPULSE Water Fire, Tower Gallery, Todi, Italy
2018
Leoncillo. The Ceramics, Galleria W. Apolloni, Rome, Italy
Leoncillo. The Papers, Galleria del Laocoonte, Rome, Italy
Leoncillo, Radical Matter. Works 1958–1968, Galleria dello Scudo, Verona, Italy
2015
Leoncillo of Cuts and Elusive Figures, Palazzo Vecchio, San Gemini, Italy
Leoncillo. Return to the Sources, Fonti del Clitunno, Campello sul Clitunno, Italy
2002
Leoncillo. Works from 1938 to 1968, Rock Churches Madonna delle Virtù, San Nicola dei Greci – Sasso Barisano and Circolo La Scaletta, Matera, Italy
Leoncillo. Sculptures, works on paper, Galleria d’Arte Maggiore, Bologna, Italy
1996
Leoncillo. Dramaturgies: Works on Paper 1957–1964, Fabia Calvasina Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Italy
1995
Leoncillo. Works 1938–1952, Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche, Faenza, Italy
1991
Leoncillo, Galleria d’Arte Niccoli, Parma, Italy
1990
The Blood of Leoncillo. Three Sculptures with Red Drops, Fortezza da Basso, Florence; Fabio Sargentini Associazione Culturale L’Attico, Rome, Italy
Leoncillo. Anthological Exhibition, Galleria Arco Farnese, Rome, Italy
Leoncillo. Works 1958–1963, Salvatore Ala Gallery, New York, NY, USA
1989
Leoncillo. Black and White Sculptures, Fabio Sargentini Associazione Culturale L’Attico, Rome, Italy
1987
Leoncillo, Galleria Oddi Baglioni, Rome, Italy
1985
Leoncillo. The Metaphor of Matter, Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Palazzo Forti, Verona, Italy
Leoncillo. The Venetian Partisan, Rocca Albornoziana, Spoleto, Italy
1983
Leoncillo, Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna, Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara; Palazzo Arroni, Spoleto, Italy
15 Works by Leoncillo, L’Attico – Esse Arte, Rome, Italy
1979
Leoncillo, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome, Italy
1976
Leoncillo. Leoncillo Leonardi, Galleria Mariani, Ravenna, Italy
1969
Leoncillo, Chiostri di San Nicolò, Spoleto, Italy
Leoncillo, Galleria Senior, Rome, Italy
1968
XXXIV International Biennial Exhibition of Art, Giardini di Castello, Venice, Italy
V Biennial of Ceramics, Convent of San Francesco, Gubbio, Italy
Leoncillo, Modern Art Agency, Naples, Italy
1966
Leoncillo: drawings and sculptures, Galleria Sanluca, Bologna, Italy
1965
Sculptures by Leoncillo, Galleria Odyssia, Rome, Italy; Galleria Odyssia, New York, NY, USA
1964
Leoncillo. Drawings and small sculptures, Galleria Le Muse, Perugia, Italy
1962
Recent works by Leoncillo, Galleria L’Attico, Rome, Italy
1960
XXX International Biennial Exhibition of Art, Giardini di Castello, Venice, Italy
Leoncillo, Galleria Blu, Milan, Italy (organised in collaboration with Galleria L’Attico, Rome)
1958
Leoncillo, Galleria L’Attico, Rome, Italy
1957
Leoncillo, Galleria La Tartaruga, Rome, Italy
1954
XXVII International Biennial Exhibition of Art, Giardini di Castello, Venice, Italy
1949
Leoncillo, Galleria Il Fiore, Florence, Italy
2025
From Me How Far Is the Earth? Manuela Cirino in dialogue with Leoncillo, MACC – Torgiano Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art, Torgiano, Italy
2023
Intersections. Mario Ballocco, Alberto Burri, Franco Bemporad, Nuvolo, Leoncillo, Fausto Melotti, Montrasio Arte, Monza, Italy
2022
Incontrinterra 2022 Lucio Fontana, Amilcare Rambelli, Leoncillo Leonardi, Giancarlo Sciannella, Fausto Melotti, Giacinto Cerone, Freemocco, Deruta, Italy
2021
Return to the Baroque. Fontana Leoncillo Melotti, ML Fine Art – Matteo Lampertico, Milan, Italy
2018
Baroque and Barocchetto. Matter and Colour in the Sculpture of Lucio Fontana and Leoncillo Leonardi, FA.MO. Museo Galleria Rometti, Umbertide, Italy
Dawn of a Nation. From Guttuso to Fontana and Schifano, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy
Scorribanda, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome, Italy
2017
Intuition, Palazzo Fortuny, Venice, Italy
2016
Gubbio 2016 – 26th Sculpture Biennale, Palazzo Ducale and Palazzo dei Consoli, Gubbio, Italy
Fontana – Leoncillo. Form of Matter, Fondazione Carriero, Milan, Italy
Materia Prima. Leoncillo, Spagnulo, Mainolfi, Cerone, Ducrot, Palazzo Podestarile, Montelupo Fiorentino, Italy
2015
Terrae. Ceramics in Informal Art and Contemporary Research, Pinacoteca Comunale, Città di Castello, Italy
Masters of the 20th Century. Fifty Years of Presence in Corciano, Church of San Francesco, Palazzo Comunale and Monastic Complex of Sant’Antonio Abate, Corciano, Italy
Contemporary Ceramic Sculpture in Italy, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome, Italy
Ceramics Take Shape, Montrasio Arte, Milan, Italy
MUSMA – Museum of Contemporary Sculpture, Matera, Italy (long–term loan 2006–2015)
2014
The Changing Ceramic, Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche, Faenza, Italy
2012
Art Returns to Art, Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence, Italy
2008
Pascali, Leoncillo. Two Artists in Dialogue, Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna, Spoleto, Italy
2006
Afro & Italy/America. Encounters and Comparisons, Chiesa di San Francesco, Udine, Italy; Palazzo Ricchieri and Villa Galvani, Pordenone, Italy
Art at Work. Artists and Ceramics of the 20th Century in Umbria, Palazzo Cesaroni, Perugia, Italy
2005
The Rometti Ceramics, Rocca – Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea, Umbertide, Italy
Double Triple Quadruple. Massimo Barzagli, Leoncillo, Giancarlo Limoni, Luigi Ontani, Pizzi Cannella, Fabio Sargentini Associazione Culturale L’Attico, Rome, Italy
2002
Rome 1948–1959: Art, Culture and News of the Times from Neorealism to the Dolce Vita, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, Italy
2001
Journey to the End of the Night. Burri, Fontana, Leoncillo, Fabio Sargentini Associazione Culturale L’Attico, Rome, Italy
2000
Twentieth Century. Art and History in Italy, Scuderie Papali al Quirinale and Mercati di Traiano, Rome, Italy
The Fascination of Ceramics. Paths between Art and Architecture of the Masters of the 20th Century, homage to Pablo Picasso, Museo delle Ceramiche di Castelli, Castelli, Italy
Wounded Time. Avant–garde between Euphoria and Depression, Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, Germany
1998
Leoncillo, sculptures, works on paper, Galleria Erica Fiorentini, Rome, Italy
1997
Modern Tradition in the Upper Tiber Valley: The Museum Valley. Baldelli, Burri, Bruschetti, Cagli, Ciangottini, Fusco, Leoncillo, Nuvolo, Riguccini, Galleria delle Arti, Città di Castello, Italy
1994
The Italian Metamorphosis, 1943–1968, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, USA; Triennale di Milano, Milan, Italy; Kunstmuseum, Wolfsburg, Germany
1991
Summary. The 1990/91 art season in a review exhibition. Barzagli, Leoncillo, Pascali, Pizzi Cannella, Corsini, Fabio Sargentini Associazione Culturale L’Attico, Rome, Italy
1990
Memory of the Future. Italian Art from the Early Avant–Gardes to the Post–War Period, Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain
1989
Sculpture and Ceramics in 20th–Century Italy, Galleria d’Arte Moderna Giorgio Morandi, Bologna, Italy
1988
The Roman Schools: Developments and Continuity 1927–1988, Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Palazzo Forti, Verona, Italy
1986
Qu’est–ce que la sculpture moderne?, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
Cagli and Leoncillo at the Rometti Ceramics, Rocca di Umbertide, Umbertide, Italy
1983
Informal Art in Italy, Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Bologna, Italy
1982
Spoleto in the 1950s. Leoncillo – De Gregorio – Marignoli – Raspi, L’Attico – Esse Arte, Rome, Italy
1978
Different Realities for an Umbrian Sculpture, Centro Studio Vanoni–Mattei, Terni, Italy
1975
Leoncillo–Bendini, L’Attico – Esse Arte, Rome, Italy
1972
36th International Biennale Exhibition, Giardini di Castello, Venice, Italy
1968
Exhibition of Contemporary Drawing, Palazzo Sturm, Bassano del Grappa, Italy
1967
International and Universal Exposition, Italian Pavilion, Montreal, Canada
Group Exhibition of Umbrian Artists, Galleria Plinio il Giovane, Spoleto, Italy
1966
3rd International Exhibition of Contemporary Sculpture, Musée Rodin, Paris, France
Exhibition of the founding artists of the magazine ‘Editalia Qui Arte Contemporanea’, Galleria Editalia Qui Arte Contemporanea, Rome, Italy
Italian and Foreign Art, Galleria Penelope, Rome, Italy
Twenty Italian Sculptors, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; Ferens Art Gallery, Hull; Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield; City Art Gallery, Manchester; City Art Gallery, Bristol; Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry, UK
1965
9th Rome Quadrennial National Art Exhibition, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, Italy
Small Sculpture from Italy, Madurodam–Den Haag–Scheveningen, The Hague; De Zonnehof, Amersfoort, Netherlands
5th Exhibition of Figurative Arts of Rome and Lazio, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, Italy
Art and Resistance in Europe, Museo Civico, Bologna; Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna, Turin, Italy
Graphic Art Today, Galleria d’Arte Narciso, Turin, Italy
Contemporary Italian Sculptures, Musée Fantin–Latour, Grenoble, France; Musée des Augustins, Toulouse, France; Pavillon de Vendôme, Aix–en–Provence, France; Palais des Beaux–Arts, Charleroi, Belgium; Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp, Belgium
1964
Drawings and Engravings for Christmas, Galleria Penelope, Rome, Italy
4th Drawing Fair, Salone Annunciata, Milan, Italy
Small Sculptures and Drawings, Libreria Le Muse, Perugia, Italy
Italian Artistic Ceramics, Galleria Penelope, Rome, Italy
The 1964 Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture, Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Italian Sculpture, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK
Sculpture in the Home, Galleria Montenapoleone, Milan, Italy
22nd International Competition of Artistic Ceramics, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Faenza, Italy
Italian Ceramics Today, Galleria del Mulino, Milan, Italy
The Roman School, Galleria La Barcaccia, Rome, Italy
Group Exhibition, Galleria La Scaletta, Mantua, Italy
50 Drawings by 50 Sculptors, Galleria del Mulino, Milan, Italy
Drawings executed by sculptors, Galleria Il Cancello, Bologna, Italy
1963
Anthology of Drawings, Engravings and Tempera Paintings, Galleria Penelope, Rome, Italy
XXI National Competition. I International Ceramics Competition, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Faenza, Italy
Motifs of Contemporary Art, Galleria Narciso, Turin, Italy
Competition Exhibition of Figurative Arts, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, Italy
IV Exhibition of Figurative Arts of Rome and Lazio, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, Italy
Sculptor–Engravers, Litografica Romero, Rome, Italy
National Contemporary Art Market Exhibition, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy
7th Modigliani Prize. Informal Art in Italy up to 1957, Palazzo del Museo, Livorno, Italy
Modern Italian Drawings, Centro Culturale Olivetti, Ivrea, Italy
For the Freedom of Spain, Galleria Penelope, Rome, Italy
Drawing Fair, Salone Annunciata, Milan, Rome
1962
Black and White, Galleria Delfino, Rovereto, Italy
Ceramics Art Biennial. VII Gubbio Prize ‘Mastro Giorgio’, Palazzo Ducale, Gubbio, Italy
Italian Sculpture Today, Bauzentrum and Chamber of Commerce, Hamburg; Kunstverein – Villa Salve Hospes, Braunschweig; Italian Cultural Institute, Cologne, Germany (organised by Galleria dell’Obelisco, Rome)
Alternative Current Trends. International Survey of Avant–Garde Architecture, Painting and Sculpture, Castello Cinquecentesco, L’Aquila, Italy
International Sculpture Exhibition, Galleria Toninelli, Spoleto and Milan, Italy
Sculptures in the City – V Festival of Two Worlds, Spoleto, Italy
Drawings by Sculptors, Galleria Passeggiata di Ripetta, Rome, Italy
1961
Contemporary Italian Sculpture, Casa Italiana of Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
Morgan’s Paint Prize. III International Biennial for Painting and Sculpture. Italy–Yugoslavia, Palazzo dell’Arengo, Rimini, Italy; Modern Gallery, Ljubljana, Yugoslavia; JAZU Modern Gallery, Zagreb, Yugoslavia; Gallery of the Yugoslav People’s Army Club, Belgrade, Yugoslavia
Italian Culture Today, Louisiana Museum, Humlebæk, Denmark; Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, Norway; Kunstmuseum, Gothenburg, Sweden
Italian Contemporary Sculpture, Takashimaya Department Store, Nihonbashi, Tokyo; Daimaru Department Store, Osaka; Fukuoka; Yawata; Nagoya; Hiroshima; Kurashiki, Japan
1960
Contemporary Italian Sculpture. From Arturo Martini to the Present Day, Musée Rodin, Paris
Contemporary Italian Sculptors, Centro Artistico Il Grattacielo, Livorno, Italy
1959
VIII National Quadrennial of Art of Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, Italy
IV International Exhibition of Sacred Art, Palazzo del Broletto, Novara, Italy
Spoleto Prize. V National Exhibition of Figurative Arts, Palazzo Collicola, Spoleto, Italy
II National Exhibition of Ceramics and Metalworks, Palazzo Ducale, Gubbio, Italy
II Morgan’s Paint Prize. Il Biennial for Painting, Sculpture, Black and White, Palazzo dell’Arengo, Rimini, Italy
XVII National Ceramics Competition, former Convent of San Maglorio, Faenza, Italy
6th Biennial of Sculpture, Middelheim Park, Antwerp, Belgium
31 Artists and 31 Works of the Italian Artistic Renewal from 1930 to 1943, Galleria d’Arte La Nuova Pesa, Rome, Italy
Bendini, Bogart, Canogar, De Gregorio, Leoncillo, Marignoli, Mihailovitch, Raspi, Galleria L’Attico, Rome, Italy
1958
‘Colour–Image’, La Medusa Studio d’Arte Contemporanea, Rome, Italy
1957
IV São Paulo Bienal, Museu de Arte Moderna, São Paulo, Brazil
Great Art Exhibition Munich 1957. With an Exhibition of Italian Art from 1910 to the Present, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany
1955
VII National Quadrennial of Art of Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, Italy
Boston Arts Festival, Boston, MA, USA
Exhibition of Contemporary Italian Art, Palacio del Retiro, Madrid, Spain
1954
XII National Ceramics Competition, former Convent of San Maglorio, Faenza, Italy
1953
I National Exhibition of Figurative Arts, Palazzo Collicola, Spoleto, Italy
2nd Biennial of Sculpture, Middelheim Park, Antwerp, Belgium
1952
XXVI International Biennial Exhibition of Art, Giardini di Castello, Venice, Italy
1951
Italian Artists of Today. Exhibition of Italian Contemporary Art, Konsthallen, Gothenburg, Sweden; Konsthallen, Helsinki, Finland; Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, Norway; Frie Udstilling, Copenhagen, Denmark
1950
Italy at Work: Her Renaissance in Design Today, Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY; Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA; Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR; Minneapolis Institute of Fine Arts, Minneapolis, MN; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; City Art Museum of St. Louis, St. Louis, MO; Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH; Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA; Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD; Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI, USA
XXV International Biennial Exhibition of Art, Giardini di Castello, Venice, Italy
Contemporary Italian Art, Amerika Haus, Munich; Düsseldorf; Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen; Hamburg; Berlin; Kunsthalle Mannheim, Mannheim; Kunst– und Gewerbeverein Pforzheim, Pforzheim, Germany
IV Annual Exhibition of the Art Club, National Gallery of Modern Art, Rome, Italy
1949
Sculpture Prize ‘City of Varese’, Villa Mirabello, Varese, Italy
1948
Sport in Art Exhibition together with a List of Awards in the International Competition, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
XXIV International Biennial Exhibition of Art, Giardini di Castello, Venice, Italy
Contemporary Italian Sculpture, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, UK
II National Exhibition of Art Inspired by Sport, National Gallery of Modern Art, Rome, Italy
Handicraft as a Fine Art in Italy, House of Italian Handicraft, New York, NY, USA
1947
I Exhibition of the Fronte Nuovo delle Arti, Galleria della Spiga, Milan, Italy
VIII Milan Triennale. International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts and Modern Architecture, Palazzo dell’Arte, Milan, Italy
1946
Sculpture Prize of La Spiga, Galleria della Spiga, Milan, Italy
Exhibition of Masterworks from the Studio of Villa Giulia by Enrico Galassi, Studio d’Arte Palma, Rome, Italy
1944
Art against Barbarism. Roman artists against Nazi–Fascist oppression, Galleria di Roma, Rome, Italy
1943
Donnini, Leoncillo, Purificato, Scialoja, Turcato, Valenti, Vedova, Galleria dello Zodiaco, Rome, Italy
1942
IX Art Exhibition of the Interprovincial Fascist Union of Fine Arts of Umbria, Rocca Paolina, Perugia, Italy
1940
VII Milan Triennale. International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts and Modern Architecture, Palazzo dell’Arte, Milan, Italy
2022
Fiorucci, Lorenzo; Giardini, Claudio; Tonelli, Marco, Leoncillo. In the Sign of the Body, exh. cat., Fano: Palazzo Bracci Pagani.
2021
Corgnati, Martina; Mascelloni, Enrico; Risaliti, Sergio, Leoncillo. The Ancient, exh. cat., Florence: Museo del Novecento.
2019
Caponi, Alessandra; Corgnati, Martina; Fiorucci, Lorenzo; Mascelloni, Enrico; Tonelli, Marco; Lorenzoni, Laura; Dalla Costa, Elena, Leoncillo: Radical Matter: Works 1958–1968, exh. cat., Verona: Galleria dello Scudo.
2018
Tonelli, Marco (ed.), Leoncillo: Piccolo diario: 1957–1964, Milan: Skira.
2016
Crispolti, Enrico; Stocchi, Francesco, Fontana – Leoncillo. Form of Matter, exh. cat., Milan: Fondazione Carriero.
2002
Appella, Giuseppe; Rubiu, Vittore; Sargentini, Fabio, Leoncillo. Works from 1938 to 1968, exh. cat., Rome: Edizioni della Cometa.
Mascelloni, Enrico, Leoncillo. Sculptures and works on paper, exh. cat., Bologna: Galleria d’Arte Maggiore.
1991
Cortenova, Giorgio; Mascelloni, Enrico, Leoncillo, exh. cat., Parma: Galleria d’Arte Niccoli.
1990
Cortenova, Giorgio; Mascelloni, Enrico, Leoncillo. Anthological Exhibition, exh. cat., Rome: Galleria Arco Farnese.
Calvesi, Maurizio; Mascelloni, Enrico, Leoncillo. Works 1958–1963, exh. cat., New York: Salvatore Ala Gallery.
1989
Calvesi, Maurizio, Leoncillo. Black and White Sculptures, exh. cat., Rome: Fabio Sargentini Associazione Culturale L’Attico.
1987
Leonardi, Leoncillo, Leoncillo, exh. cat., Rome: Galleria Oddi Baglioni.
1986
Cortenova, Giorgio; Mascelloni, Enrico, Cagli and Leoncillo at the Rometti Ceramics, exh. cat., Umbertide: Rocca di Umbertide.
1985
Cortenova, Giorgio, Leoncillo. The Metaphor of Matter, exh. cat., Verona: Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Palazzo Forti.
Toscano, Bruno; Argan, Giulio Carlo, Leoncillo. The Venetian Partisan, exh. cat., Spoleto: Rocca Albornoziana.
1983
Spadoni, Claudio, Leoncillo, exh. cat., Ferrara: Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna, Palazzo dei Diamanti.
Spadoni, Claudio; Brandi, Cesare, Leoncillo, Rome: L’Attico – Esse Arte.
Villa, Emilio, 15 Works by Leoncillo, exh. cat., Rome: L’Attico – Esse Arte.
1979
Mantura, Bruno, Leoncillo, exh. cat., Rome: Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna.
1976
Spadoni, Claudio, Leoncillo. Leoncillo Leonardi, exh. cat., Ravenna: Galleria Mariani.
1972
Valentino, Ernesto, X Quadrennial: The Situation of Non–Figurative Art, exh. cat., Rome: Quadriennale nazionale d’arte di Roma.
1969
Arcangeli, Francesco; Carandente, Giovanni, Leoncillo, exh. cat., Spoleto: Chiostri di San Nicolò.
Sargentini, Bruno, Leoncillo, exh. cat., Rome: Galleria Senior.
1968
Boatto, Alberto, XXXIV International Biennial Exhibition of Art, exh. cat., Venice: Giardini di Castello.
Crispolti, Enrico, V Biennial of Ceramics, exh. cat., Gubbio: Convent of San Francesco.
Boatto, Alberto; Menna, Filiberto, Leoncillo, exh. cat., Naples: Modern Art Agency.
1965
Tecchi, Bonaventura (ed.), 9th Rome Quadrennial National Art Exhibition, exh. cat., Rome: De Luca Editore.
Sculptures by Leoncillo, exh. cat., New York: Galleria Odyssia.
1964
Von Groschwitz, Gustave, The 1964 Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture, exh. cat., Pittsburgh: Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute.
1962
Apollonio, Umbro, Italian Sculpture Today, exh. cat., Rome: Galleria dell’Obelisco.
Villa, Emilio, Recent works by Leoncillo, exh. cat., Rome: Galleria L’Attico.
Sciortino, Giuseppe, Ceramics Art Biennial. VII Gubbio Prize ‘Mastro Giorgio’, exh. cat., Gubbio: Palazzo Ducale.
1960
Ceramics Art Biennial, exh. cat., Gubbio: Palazzo Ducale.
Calvesi, Maurizio, XXX International Biennial Exhibition of Art, exh. cat., Venice: Giardini di Castello.
Pallucchini, Rodolfo, Contemporary Italian Sculpture. From Arturo Martini to the Present Day, exh. cat., Paris: Musée Rodin.
Crispolti, Enrico, Leoncillo, exh. cat., Milan: Galleria Blu.
Argan, Giulio Carlo; Calvesi, Maurizio, Leoncillo: recent work, Rome: Edizioni dell’Attico.
1959
Castelfranco, Giorgio; Durbé, Dario, VIII National Quadrennial of Art of Rome, exh. cat., Rome: De Luca Editore.
1958
Arcangeli, Francesco, Leoncillo, exh. cat., Rome: Galleria L’Attico.
1957
IV São Paulo Bienal, exh. cat., São Paulo: Museu de Arte Moderna.
Bellonzi, Fortunato, Great Art Exhibition Munich 1957. With an Exhibition of Italian Art from 1910 to the Present, exh. cat., Munich: Haus der Kunst.
Leonardi, Leoncillo, Leoncillo, exh. cat., Rome: Galleria La Tartaruga.
1955
Baldini, Antonio; Bellonzi, Fortunato, VII National Quadriennial of Art of Rome, exh. cat., Rome: De Luca Editore.
1954
Longhi, Roberto, Leoncillo, Rome: De Luca Editore.
Longhi, Roberto, XXVII International Biennial Exhibition of Art, exh. cat., Venice: Giardini di Castello.
1953
Baudouin, Eugène, 2nd Biennial of Sculpture, exh. cat., Antwerp: Middelheim Park.
1952
XXVI International Biennial Exhibition of Art, exh. cat., Venice: Giardini di Castello.
1951
Argan, Giulio Carlo, Italian Artists of Today. Exhibition of Italian Contemporary Art, exh. cat., Paris: Carlo Bestetti Edizioni d’arte, Paris.
1950
Rogers, Meyric R., Italy at Work: Her Renaissance in Design Today, exh. cat., New York: Brooklyn Museum.
Ragghianti, Carlo Ludovico; Degenhart, Bernhard; Haftmann, Werner, Contemporary Italian Art, exh. cat., Munich: Prestel.
XXV International Biennial Exhibition of Art, exh. cat., Venice: Giardini di Castello.
1949
Longhi, Roberto, Leoncillo, exh. cat., Florence: Galleria Il Fiore.
1948
Sport in Art Exhibition together with a List of Awards in the International Competition, exh. cat., London: Victoria and Albert Museum.
XXIV International Biennial Exhibition of Art, exh. cat., Venice: Giardini di Castello.
Ragghianti, Carlo Ludovico, Handicraft as a Fine Art in Italy, exh. cat., New York: House of Italian Handicraft.
1943
Ponti, Gio, Style: Architecture, Arts, Literature, Design, Home, Milan: Garzanti.